TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- Here are some of our final thoughts about Alabama's 45-10 romp over Tennessee as the Crimson Tide's second bye week kicks off in earnest today.

1. Kevin Norwood's first 100-yard receiving game a long time coming.

Kevin Norwood was in a great mood following the Crimson Tide's rout of the Vols. He talked with reporters for more than 10 minutes in what served as an enlightening and revealing session with the fifth-year senior.

He was speaking after the best statistical performance of his Alabama career. It started with a misguided hurdle attempt that he ultimately regretted, was highlighted by an acrobatic 34-yard catch and ended with six receptions for 112 yards -- both career highs -- and a touchdown.

"I'm very excited of how far I've come," he said, perhaps referencing the off-season toe surgery that kept him out of spring football and parts of the summer. "I'm still hungry. I feel like
there's a lot of stuff I haven't accomplished yet as a receiver."

It was at that point when Norwood, unprompted, revealed a feeling he hadn't previously shared with a room full of reporters.

"I still
think I'm being overlooked, which is fine by me," Norwood said. "I know when it comes
down to it, I'm going to work hard for it and continue to do what I do."

When it comes to national individualized exposure, Norwood has a lot working against him.

He's the leading receiver on a team that spreads the ball around as much as any in the country. He's one of eight players with more than 100 receiving yards, one of seven with 10 or more receptions and one of nine with at least one touchdown catch. His 348 yards are the best among Crimson Tide receivers, but ranks 21st in the SEC.

He's also among an Alabama group of receivers that includes sophomore Amari Cooper, whose breakout freshman campaign made him the feature name is this crowd heading into the season. After his early-season struggles, Cooper appears to be rounding into form.

Norwood, though, just might have the most reliable set of hands on Alabama's roster, and his chemistry with quarterback AJ McCarron, also a fifth-year senior, is probably the best among the Crimson Tide's receivers. That was on full display when McCarron scrambled out of the pocket during Saturday's third quarter, motioned for Norwood to alter his route and threw it in a place where only Norwood could make an outstanding catch.

Norwood smiled when a reporter asked him why he thinks he's been overlooked.

"I don't know," he said. "That's up to y'all."

2. Sizing up Alabama's dominant October.

Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron (10) throws long during the second quarter of the no. 1 Alabama vs Tennessee NCAA football game, Saturday, October 26, 2013, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

The goal, as coaches often say, is to get better in every game -- win or lose. Alabama, of course, has done a lot of winning over the past few years and continues to do just that in an undefeated 2013 campaign.

That's why this sort of game-by-game improvement is so important, particularly during a stretch of the schedule that featured a handful of inferior opponents. Had Alabama won the way it did against Colorado State, there would be a definite sense of uneasiness heading into the latest, biggest game of the season against LSU.

Alabama, though, has about as much confidence as it possibly could heading into the Nov. 9 showdown with the Tigers. Here are a few stats and trends to indicate why.

-- Alabama hasn't allowed a sack in its past four games. That's the longest such stretch in decades. During this particular streak, Alabama has attempted 128 passes since it last surrendered a sack. Perhaps what makes this most impressive is that Alabama has rotated a freshman (Grant Hill) at right tackle and played three games with its backup center (Chad Lindsay).

Alabama coach Nick Saban didn't want to play Liner in 2013, but the Crimson Tide's rash of injuries along the defensive line didn't allow him much of a choice. Alabama had 12 defensive linemen working through drills at the start of camp, but dressed just seven for Saturday's game.

Liner, who picked up two tackles late in Saturday's fourth quarter, is the third and final defensive lineman from Alabama's 2013 class to see the field. The fourth, Darius Paige, was declared medically ineligible in August.

It doesn't matter if this was Liner's only action of the season; he'll be a sophomore no matter what in 2014. It likely isn't, as Dalvin Tomlinson is out for the season, Dakota Ball is out indefinitely, Wilson Love hasn't dressed for the past two games and nose guard Brandon Ivory's status for the LSU game remains unclear.

With that in mind, here's a look at Alabama's updated redshirt situation. We've included stats for those who played to see just how much mileage they've gotten out of their first season at Alabama.

The excitement surrounding freshman cornerback Eddie Jackson was understandable after he intercepted a pass and collected a tackle for loss against Ole Miss. An ankle injury in the following week against Georgia State put him on the sidelines for the second half of that game, and Jackson has yet to regain his starting spot on the opposite side of the field as Deion Belue -- even after Bradley Sylve went down with a high ankle sprain.

So what's going on?

This is a question I've received a bunch in the past weeks. I was even fielding a few throughout Saturday's game as sophomore Cyrus Jones played fairly well in his first career start.

On his Thursday radio show, Saban laid it out as clearly as he possibly could. He devoted two minutes to an answer about the everyday struggles a true freshman -- particularly one that plays on the offensive line and in the secondary -- experiences at this high of a level. This tangent of sorts came after he was asked about Alabama's cornerback situation and after he mentioned that Jones had been playing well enough to earn a start.

Again, this is a long answer from Saban, but I'm including most of it because the question has been such a common one. It also applies to freshman Maurice Smith, who has seen playing time as a backup in all eight games this season.

"The thing about the freshmen that I think people have a hard time understanding -- I don't even think the freshmen understand -- none of these guys have played under the ... what it takes from an intensity standpoint, a mental focus standpoint, week in and week out to prepare for a game and be able to go out and execute in a game," he said. "I call it casual. They're so casual about how they go about things because they don't know any better. It's not because they want to be or intend to be, but they've just never done it any other way. They've never had to pay attention to detail, they've never had to study film and say, 'OK, when they get in a bunch pass, what are they going to do?' ... They just think they're going to line up and cover the guy. Technique's not important because that's what they've always been able to do.

"It's a little bit of a work in progress with these guys, first of all to get them to grind through the season to be able to continue to stay focused and have the kind of mental focus that you need day in and day out and the carryover you have to have. You can't practice everything every day, especially in the offensive line and especially in the secondary. They've got 1,000 formations and receiver locations and every time you're going to do something, it's going to be affected by what they do.

"If you can't remember what we did last week, and now that presents itself again -- and most people that we play do different things against us; we don't see what we practiced all the time, we see something different -- if you don't have guys that have a good foundation and an understanding and basis for what they need to do, they struggle. And then when they don't have success, they get frustrated. That's what you deal with when you have young players."

Saban's answer ended with optimism about both Jackson and Smith, who have already set themselves apart from some of Alabama's other freshmen based on the fact that they're regularly playing.

"Those two guys have shown a lot of maturity," Saban said. "More maturity than most in being able to handle that."